Paladin/Sorcerer/Warlock/Bard quad multiclass

[CTurbo]

So with the Sorclock and Sorcadin being some of the most popular multiclasses out there besides Fighter2/ random class X, I was thinking about how effective it would be to blend together all 4 of the Charisma classes. This is just pure discussion/speculation of course. Not necessarily a build I'm planning to play right this minute.

So what would be the best way to split up the classes? I know that really depends on what you want to be able to do.

My initial thoughts are for more melee focused, Paladin 11, Warlock 2, Bard 2, Sorcerer 5 but for more caster focused, Paladin 2, Bard 3, Warlock 2, Sorcerer 13

So if you were going to build this character, what subclasses would you take and how would you split the classes up?

[CTurbo]

Let's look at what each class brings to the table with just a couple of levels

Paladin - Armor, weapons, fighting style, smites, Lay On Hands
Bard - Jack of All Trades, Expertise, Song of Rest, Bardic Inspiration
Warlock - Invocations, Patron, short rest spell slots
Sorcerer - Sorcerous Orgin, Font of Magic, and Metamagic

Any character that has all of that is going to be pretty good even without high level spells. All you really need is a maxed Charisma and a decent Dex so you'll want at lest 3 ASIs if not 4. I don't see a lot of room for feats, but I don't think any feat is really needed except for maybe Warcaster if you're going to hold a shield and weapon.

[Quoxis]

You need at least 2 levels of paladin to get smites, at least 2 of sorcerer to get sorcery points to convert into spell slots and vice versa, at least 4 more levels of any full caster (sorc or bard) to get 4th-level slots for maximum smiting. With that, there’s still room for 12 warlock levels - three 5th level slots per short rest to convert to sorcery points and revert when needed, called coffee-locking. You can still exchange one level of warlock for another sorcerer level to get metamagic, you’re mainly a caster after all.
Taking paladin first gives you heavy armor and shield proficiency, no subclass needed.
Bard: i‘d choose swords, obviously - extra damage and AC on top of heavy armor is damn good.
Sorc: anything goes. Draco gives you 2 hp more at all, shadow gives you darkvision and a panic button if you’re close to dying, divine soul nets you some minor cleric spells... pick whatever you want.
Warlock: obviously hexblade. Max cha and never look back. Blade pact makes most sense, chain is never bad, tome... you get at least 10+ cantrips anyway, only good if you’re planning to get each and every ritual available.

[spartan_ah]

Isn’t college of whispers better? Level 5 gives you 5 smites of 3d6 per short rest. Better than the Paladin

Level 3 will give you 2d6 five times per long rest

[PeteNutButter]

My current AL character is a Paladin 6/Hexblade 5/Swords Bard 3, and will probably dip into sorcerer after bard 5, so as not to double up on extra attack. I might try and finish paladin instead, but unless I leave bard at 4, I'll never get paladin 11.

Either way, it's clearly the strongest character I've ever played. Extremely durable and versatile. Solid damage, great burst with double smite potential, especially on crits.

If I weren't going for the double smites, I'd suggest just one or two levels in hexblade.

So Paladin 6/Swords 5/Hexblade 2/Sorcerer 7 should work. You don't get many ASIs, but all you need is charisma.

[Quoxis]

Isn’t college of whispers better? Level 5 gives you 5 smites of 3d6 per short rest. Better than the Paladin

Level 3 will give you 2d6 five times per long rest

Single target damage. 3d6 against up to 5d8. Why not take both? I still tend to prioritize AC and flexibility, but that’s subjective.

[Arkhios]

A note, if you will:

The amount of sorcery points you can have — at any time — is restricted by your Sorcerer level. So, 2nd level sorcerer can have only 2 sorcery points at any given time, including when they convert spell slots into points. Any excess points vanish immediately and can't be held in "reserve". If you want to be able to keep all sorcery points from one converted spell slot, you need sorcerer level at least equal to that spell slot's level.

sorcerer 5/warlock 9, for example, would be optimal for converting 5th level pact magic slots into sorcery points. However, at least 7 levels in Sorcerer would be required to convert sorcery points back into 5th level slots. That covers already 16 levels from one character.

If you absolutely want all that, you'd be able to get paladin 2/bard 2/sorcerer 7/warlock 9, up to 5th level spell slots, and 5th level pact magic slots. But only 3 × ASI. Given the lack of ASI I would start with Sorcerer, despite their low hit die, because they get Constitution Saving Throw proficiency, which means you don't neccessarily need Resilient (Con).

Alternatively, if you want only 4th-level spell slots recycled, you could take just 6 levels of Sorcerer (4 is required to hold 4th-level spell slots→sorcery points, 6 is required to convert 6 sorcery points→4th-level spell slot) and just 7 levels in Warlock (max 4th-level pact magic slots), which frees up 3 levels to put in other classes. I would recommend Bard, due to Font of Inspiration (cha × bardic inspiration/short or long rest). That way, you'd still get only 3 × ASI, but you would get up to 6th level spell slots (but, as mentioned, only 4th-level pact magic slots), which you could also convert into 6 sorcery points with ease.

[Citan]

Hi!

No time for detailed answer, but a few pointers of my view on the topic.

1. You want the ability to smite. So Paladin 2 is a min.
2. You most probably want short-rest Bardic Inspiration because those are just too powerful (plus Bard gets many great lvl 3 spells). So I'd usually target Bard 5, or Bard 6 for that good feature (Glamour, Lore, maybe Valor for a lesser-than-5 Paladin).
3. You want at least Repelling Blast, because that is great for soft control, so Warlock 2. If I don't plan on picking higher Warlock, Hexblade is the obvious Patron to take.
4. You want a decent pool of Sorcery points, plus Sorcerer gets a huge load of great spells and interesting lvl 6 feature, so targeting Sorcerer 6 is probably a good thing, although 4 or 5 could be arguable depending on archetype and playstyle.
So I'm already Paladin 2 / Bard 6 / Warlock 2 / Sorcerer 6, 4 levels lefts. I'd probably spend them in Paladin for Aura of Protection. :)
So final build Pal 6 / Bard 6 / Warlock 2 / Sorcerer 6 OR eat into one level of either Bard or Sorcerer to get Tome Pact and 2nd level short rest slots.

That's the end build I could go with any day, works well with many archetype combinations. I'd probably start Sorcerer 1 > Hexblade Warlock 1 > Pal 3 > Bard 1 then choose how to go depending on how much I want metamagics for my current group. I wouldn't count on Extra Attack in any way, so I'd probably be okay with waiting late before going higher Paladin (probably targeting Aura of Protection around char level 14-15 when all kind of nasty effects become common practice among enemies).

Beyond that, you may instead drop Bard to 3 and Sorcerer to 4 to instead grab more Warlock levels depending on choices (like Tome or Patron spells and better short rest slots).
Or make a real striker gish by dropping Extra Attack and Aura from Paladin and instead pick Valor Bard + Draconic Sorcerer as a DEX gish (upcast Shadow Blade + Mirror Image + high AC + Bardic Inspiration as defense)...

Honestly once you want to focus on one kind of tactic, there are dozens of great combinations. :)

[Snowbluff]

Okay, I would break it down like this:

6 paladin, get cha to saves
5 bard, get SR inspiration (probably whispers bard, as you already have xtra attack and no need for extra spells either)
1-2 warlock hexblade. maybe get agonizing blast, maybe go 3 for coffeelock shenanigans.
Fill sorcerer, probably Divine Sorcerer for the spell list improvements.